Cycling: Hotel Bel Air-sponsored 94.9km road race-Fanny wins, brings total to four |13 July 2005

The aim as usual is to get a third Seychellois winner after Chrystabel Greslé in 1996 and Hudson Mathieu in 2002 at the end of the Tour.

Road races, with riders going sightseeing all over Mahe week in, and week out dominate the cycling calendar almost every weekend. Saturday July 9, it was no different.

Hotel Bel Air, owned by Roland Rassool, was the sponsor of last Saturday’s road race of a distance of 94.9 kilometres.

With the finish line at L’Exile after the cyclists had pedalled to Danzilles  Bel Ombre, via Glacis, back to Victoria through the same route, Anse Aux Pins, Takamaka, Baie Lazare, Barbarons, Port Glaud and Morne Blanc, PLS Riders’ Roniel Fanny again proved how strong he is in marathon races.

Fanny, 28, triumphed in a time of 3 hours 17 minutes 09 seconds (3h17:09) for his fourth individual win this season as he leads the individual classification table with 425 points.

Fanny’s other three wins came in the 71-km circuit race (race number two sponsored by the Cascade community centre), 125-km road race (race number five sponsored by Chez Deenu) and 123.4-km road race (race number 10 sponsored by Mohan Shopping Centre).

Vélo Club de Mahé’s Bertrand Lesperance (3h19:16) and Nelson Rose (3h20:16) came in second and third respectively to complete the podium.

Because PLS Riders’ Francis Louis finished fourth in 3h21:42, Nelson Rose took over second place in the overall classification with 319 points. Louis is now third with 316 points.

Vélo Club de Mahé’s Raoul Gomme was the best junior rider, finishing fifth overall with a time of 3h21:44
Six other cyclists completed the distance. They are St Francis’ Alex Savy (sixth in 3h25:32), Vélo Club de Mahé’s Leeroy Labiche (seventh in 3h26:00), St Francis’ Marcus Belle (eighth in 3h27:36), St Francis’ Jean-Pierre Low-Hong (ninth in 3h28:42), PLS Riders’ Brian Sinon (10th in 3h29:03) and St Francis’ Eugène Esparon (11th in 3h45:55).

The best team title went to Vélo Club de Mahé with a cumulative time of 10h01:16, followed in second and third places by PLS Riders and St Francis with 10h07:54 and 10h21:50 respectively.

The cadet race of a distance of 42.3 kilometres was won once again by 16-year-old France Anacoura. Unbeaten in 10 races, Anacoura’s time at the finish line was 1h18:45.

Second place was taken by Ricky Servina in 1h20:19, followed in third and fourth places by Edourad Pothin and Darius Ferley who clocked the identical time of 1h28:23.

Mr Rassool gave away the prizes at the end of the race during a small reception in the garden of the Hotel Bel Air.

G. G.